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Monsters, Inc. (film)
Not to be confused with the company, the soundtrack or the song. Monsters, Inc. is the first film of the Monsters, Inc. series, released in 2001. The film was re-released in 3D on December 19, 2012. A prequel to the film, Monsters University, was released on June 21, 2013. Plot Monsters, Inc. is set in Monstropolis, a city inhabited by monsters, some of whom are those who emerge from bedroom closets to scare human children. This is used to collect the screams of kids, which power the city. The main power company in the city is called Monsters, Inc. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is a crab or spider-like monster, Henry J. Waternoose III. The top scarer at Monsters, Inc. is James P. Sullivan, aka "Sulley", a blue-furred giant who is partnered with the green, one-eyed Mike Wazowski. The two of them are best friends and roommates. Sulley is a gentle and easy-going creature, while Mike is obsessed with his car and dreams of marrying his girlfriend, the Medusa-like Celia Mae. Sulley's main rival as a scarer is the chameleon-like Randall Boggs who possesses the ability to change the color of his skin to match his surroundings. As the two train and head off to work, their discussion reveals that the city is suffering a scream shortage because children have become desensitized to fear by an over-exposure to television. After they arrive at the Monsters, Inc. work floor we are shown that monsters can call up and travel through any child's door, thus being able to sneak in to bedrooms around the world and collect screams. In order to allow Mike to take out his girlfriend, Sulley agrees to stay at work late and turn in his paperwork. He finds a lone door on the work floor after hours, a violation of policy. An investigation leads to a small human girl coming through into the monster world. Sulley is frightened, as it is believed all human children are toxic to monsters. After three attempts to put her back, he attempts to take the girl to Mike, who is enjoying a romantic dinner with his girlfriend at Harryhausen's. The girl escapes and is seen, causing mass panic and alerting the Child Detection Agency (CDA). The two grab her and barely make it home. The girl stays overnight and is soon named Boo (for her habit of saying "Boo!" all the time). The two come to know she is not dangerous as once thought, but they still plan to return her the next day. She is disguised as a monster and they sneak her inside Monsters, Inc. Mike wants to toss her in any old door, but Sulley wants to return her to her home. A mistake gets Mike kidnapped by Randall, who had intended to take Boo. Randall has created a machine to extract screams straight from kidnapped kids. Sulley and Mike tell everything to Waternoose. However, it turns out that Waternoose is in on Randall's scheme. Because of the decline in productivity, he fears for the company's future, and sees Randall's machine as the only way of ensuring Monsters Inc's survival. Waternoose betrays them, banishing the two to the Himalayas. The two stay with the Yeti until Sulley learns of a village down below. After an argument with Mike, he sneaks back to the monster world that way. Mike soon follows. They confront Randall and attempt to rescue Boo. In the end Mike and Sulley send Randall to a motor home in a Louisiana swamp, where he is beaten senseless with a shovel by the family living inside (who mistake him for an alligator). Mike and Sulley destroy the door Randall went through, thus trapping him. Mike and Sulley trick Waternoose into exposing himself to the CDA, whose true leader is Roz, the scare floor secretary. Boo is sent home and her door is put through a grinder. Sulley comes to realize that laughter is more powerful than screams and the company is redefined. Sulley becomes the new Chairman and CEO, and the monsters now enter the doors to entertain the kids as comedians, resulting in ample energy for the monster world. In secret, Mike also has Boo's door reassembled. Sulley takes one more peek inside and Boo is heard but not seen, while Sulley has a surprised and happy smile on his face. Production The idea for Monsters, Inc. started with a lunch in 1994. At this lunch was John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft. One of the ideas that came out of the brainstorming session was a movie about monsters. Docter started working on the script in 1996 and with Harley Jessup, Jill Culton and Jeff Pidgeon completed a draft treatment in February, 1997. The initial story did not have the character of Mike Wazowski. He wasn't added until a story review meeting between Pixar and Disney in April of 1998. The movie went into production in 2000. The release of Monsters, Inc. was almost delayed by a lawsuit brought by Lori Madrid against Pixar, Disney and Chronicle Books. The suit alleged the defendants had stolen her story There's a Boy in My Closet, which she had mailed out in October 1999 to a number of publishers, including Chronicle Books. The plaintiffs had requested a temporary injunction against the release of the film. Judge Clarence Brimmer, Jr. had a hearing on the injunction on November 1, 2001, the day before the movie was to be released. He judged against the injunction, and the entire suit was thrown out on June 26, 2002. Reception The film was given a 95% on the Rotten Tomatoes review site, saying it's not as sophisticated as the Toy Story series but a fun film for children of all ages. Awards *Monsters, Inc. won the Academy Award for Best Song (Randy Newman for "If I Didn't Have You"). The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Best Music, Original Score. *Monsters, Inc. and Shrek are the first pair of CG animated movies to win Academy Awards in the same year (Monsters, Inc. for Best Song of 2001, and Shrek for Best Animated Feature of 2001). Attached short films ''For the Birds'' The theatrical and video/DVD release of the film included For the Birds, a Pixar short made in 2000, a year before this film was released. Mike's New Car The video/DVD release also includes Mike's New Car, a short starring Mike and Sulley. ''Partysaurus Rex'' Partysaurus Rex was included on the Blu-Ray re-release of Monsters, Inc. Prequel Pixar confirmed a prequel to the film, set for release on June 21, 2013. 3D Re-release Details The conversion to 3D made sense to producers and developers especially considering the extensive scenes in the movie involving undending moving doors. Joshua Hollander and Bob Whitehill, along with a team of 14 pros spent a year continuously recreating the world, characters, and story into 3D. Pete Doctor, the director, mentions that the film was always though of in 3D and that the transition was easy. Doctor insists the movie will be comfortable to watch (no strain), consistent (enhancing, not changing), and captivating (immersive). Each scene was taken in and re-shot, determine how much of the 3D effect was necessary and when to hold back for dramatic effect. Some problems arose with certain images throughout the movie when converting to 3D: for example, there is a scene in the movie with paintings that have no 3D information to proces; these problems had to be reworked from scratch. Sulley's hair was also problematic as each hair had to be randomly generated when it came to 3D movement; they had to make it as close as possible but could not replicate it. Spin-offs *A manga version of Monsters, Inc. was produced by Hiromi Yamafuji and distributed in Kodansha's Comic Bon Bon magazine in Japan; the manga is published in English by TOKYOPOP. *Feld Entertainment currently tours a Monsters, Inc. edition of their Disney on Ice skating tour. *A series of video games, and a multi-platform video game were created, based on the movie. *A short was made by Pixar in 2002, Mike's New Car. *In Cars, one of the films that Mack watches at the end is called "Monster Trucks, Inc." *A four issue sequel comic book miniseries, Monsters, Inc.: Laugh Factory, published by Boom! Studios Theme park attractions Monsters, Inc. has inspired three attractions at Walt Disney theme parks. * In 2006, "Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!" opened at Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The dark ride was developed to boost the theme park's lagging attendance, and was quite successful in doing so, at least for a period of time. * In 2007, "Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor" opened at the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The show is improvisational in nature, and features the opportunity for guests to interact with the monster comedians, and even submit jokes of their own via text message. * In 2009, "Monsters, Inc: Ride & Go Seek" opened at Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Chiba, Japan. Following the format of the California dark ride, "Ride & Go Seek" is an extended version with enhanced effects. Characters *James P. Sullivan *Mike Wazowski *Boo *Randall Boggs *Henry J. Waternoose III *Celia Mae *Roz *CDA *Abominable Snowman *Fungus *Needleman and Smitty *Jerry *Thaddeus Bile *George Sanderson *Claws Ward *Lanky Schmidt *Ricky Plesuski *Spike Jones *Harley Gerson *Ted Pauley *Luckey *Rivera *Charlie *Waxford *Tony *Betty *Flint *Chalooby *Ms. Nesbit *Baby Smitty *Trailer Son and Mom *The Sushi Chef *The Simulation Committee *Albert Lozano Cast *John Goodman as James P. Sullivan *Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski *Mary Gibbs as Boo *Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs *James Coburn as Henry J. Waternoose III *Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae *Bob Peterson as Roz *John Ratzenberger as Abominable Snowman *Frank Oz as Fungus *Daniel Gerson as Needleman and Smitty *Steve Susskind as Jerry *Bonnie Hunt as Flint *Jeff Pidgeon as Bile *Sam Black as George Sanderson *Phil Proctor as Charlie *Guido Quaroni as Tony Additional Voices *Jack Angel Soundtrack : Main article: Monsters, Inc. (soundtrack) *If I Didn't Have You *Monsters, Inc. *School *Walk to Work *Sulley and Mike *Randall Appears *Enter the Heroes *The Scare Floor *Oh, Celia! *Boo's Adventures in Monstropolis *Boo's Tired *Putting Boo Back *Boo Escapes *Celia's Mad *Boo Is a Cube *Mike's In Trouble *The Scream Extractor *Sulley Scares Boo *Exile *Randall's Attack *The Ride of the Doors *Waternoose Is Waiting *Boo's Going Home *Kitty Trivia * The Pizza Planet truck is parked next to the trailer from A Bug's Life where Randall ends up at the end. * Roly Poly Clown appears at the end. * Boo has in her room, a Pixar ball, a Nemo toy, and a Jessie doll. * Rex appears in the outtakes. * Randall turns the same color as Andy's bedroom paint job from Toy Story at one point. * The wall behind the Octopus in Harryhausen's has Marlin from Finding Nemo on it. *Nemo also appears on the door of the Trailer Son and Mom when Sulley throws Randall into it. *The toy plane from Toy Story appeared on the top left of the shelf in the little boy's bedroom at the beginning. * Sulley has 2,320,413 individual strands of hair. * The letters "FIZT" on the door machine come from an application developed to control the movement of Sulley's fur based on his actions and other factors such as wind. * The name for Mike Wazowski came from the father of the Muppet performer Frank Oz. * In one of the children's bedrooms at the end of the film, posters for Disneyland's Sailing Ship Columbia and Tomorrowland are seen. *Randall at one point says to Fungus, "If I don't see a new door in my station in five seconds, I will personally put you THROUGH THE SHREDDER!" Randall's voice actor, Steve Buscemi, starred in Fargo, a movie in which his character gets put through a wood chipper/shredder by his murderous accomplice. *On the top scarers leader board, under Sulley and Randall, is a monster named Ranft. This was probably to Joe Ranft, who is one of PIXAR's storyboard artists. He also did a couple of voices in films. *All of the Scarers' last names except for Sulley, Randall, George Sanderson, and Ricky Plesuski are also those of actual Pixar staff members. *The Hidden City Cafe is seen in the opening scene, which, according to a teaser trailer for WALL-E, is where they thought up the idea for Monsters, Inc. *This is the only Pixar film series not to feature any permanent deaths at all. *It is also the only film in which the A113 gag is nowhere to be seen, although the number 13 can be seen briefly on the garbage compactor at one point in the film. *The scene where Sulley thinks that Boo has been crushed to death in a trash compactor references the Looney Tunes short Feed the Kitty, right down to Sulley even mimicking Marc Anthony the bulldog's reactions to "Boo"/"Pussyfoot" being "shredded alive" by the compactor/"cooked alive" in an oven and subsequently lamenting her "death" after retrieving a garbage cube containing one of Boo's costume's "eyes"/cookie shaped like a cat. *The preschool teacher who brings her class to the Monsters, Inc. factory during Boo's escapades inside the factory and blending into said class is named Ms. Nesbit, after a throwaway gag in Toy Story in which Hannah Phillips assigns that name to Buzz Lightyear after Buzz attempts to fly out of a window after learning the truth about him not being a flying toy after watching a TV commercial about his toy brand only to fall off the balcony and crashing onto the first floor and severing his left arm, before being rescued by Hannah and turned into one of her "dolls." *This is the last Pixar film to have outtakes at the end of the film. * The Blu-ray re-release version of the film's closing credits lacked the outtakes as in the original theatrical and home releases as such has been relegated to a bonus feature, instead it features stylized monster body parts (like in the opening credits) and closet doors surrounding the credits. *All of the digital displays (such as the clock radio, the "Days since the last accident" counter, etc), are all made up of Nixie tubes. Nixie tubes were digital displays made up of digits formed from light bulbs with wiring shaped like letters or numbers, much like neon signs. *This is Pixar's first attempt at animating fur. * It's also Pixar's first attempt at animating loose clothing like skirts and dresses (in this case, Boo's nightshirt). In the first two Toy Story films, all human girls and women, (Ms. Davis, Hannah Phillips) wore pants since it was very difficult at the time to animate skirts and dresses, Bo Peep's dress included a hoop skirt, and the various Barbie dolls were all seen wearing tight clothing. The second instance of Pixar animating loose clothing was in Finding Nemo with a woman's skirt in the waiting room (most noticeable in the original 2003 US home release-exclusive fullscreen version) toward the end of that film. *This is the only Pixar film whose original VHS and DVD releases lacked a paperboard slipcover. *There are at least 100 different monster "races" seen in the film. * Due to software limitations, the artists were mostly limited to 1 hairy character per shot. * This film was nominated for the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001, but lost to a DreamWorks film, Shrek. This makes Pixar one of the first three animation studios to be nominated for that category. Trivia Gallery Marlin on Wall.png|Behind the Sushi Chef appears Marlin from Finding Nemo on the wall Monsters-Inc-Nemo-web.jpg|A Nemo toy in Boo's Bedroom Nemo-Trailer door-Monsters-Inc.jpg|Nemo's cameo in the door Toy.png|Jessie, Nemo and Luxo Ball appears in Boo's Bedroom Roly Poly Clown Monsters, Inc..png|Roly Poly Clown from Toy Story and Toy Story 2 appears in the end Rex Monsters, Inc..png|Rex from Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 appears in Outtakes Sulley Fur.png|A fuzzy material resembling Sulley's fur as a toilet seat covering in Partysaurus Rex. monstersplane.jpg|The plane from Toy Story is seen Pizza-Planet-Truck-Monsters.jpg|Pizza Planet Truck on the left. Goofs *In the international version of the video/DVD, several instances of written English text have been replaced with universal symbols. However, on several occasions, they switch back to the original appearance. For instance: The "Standby/Scare" sign in the factory, the "Contamination alert" on the video wall during the first 2319 and the joke on the video wall in the final scene. *When Boo laughs repeatedly while playing hide-and-seek with Sulley in the men's room, nothing happens to the electricity -- no surges as with all other times she laughs (in the audio commentary by the directors, they explained that it would've been distracting if an energy surge occurred every time Boo laughed, so they simply didn't address the issue. A reasonable course of action, but still a mistake). *After the Scarefloor shuts down at 6:00 and Sulley goes back to the Scarefloor to do Mike's paperwork, the clock reads 5:48. After he returns again to put Boo back, it clearly shows 5:48. Finally, after Randall leaves and Sulley leaves the Scarefloor for the restaurant, the clock reads 6:48. *In the opening scene, on the floor, there is a toy train on circular tracks when the monster sneaks in. When the monster (Bile) trips backwards over the ball and skateboard then falls onto the jacks, the train and tracks are gone. *When Mike is bringing Sulley to the fixed door, he has no slivers or band-aids on his hands. Then, when he says, "It was a lot of wood to go through.", you see that he does. *During the opening scene, where Bile is looking under the bed, you can see the soccer ball just beside the bed and in front of the dresser. As Bile moves backward, he suddenly trips over that same soccer ball that suddenly moved from the side of the bed, to the back. *At the beginning, when the mailman drops the newspaper on Mike and Sulley's door, Mike opens the door and the newspaper vanishes from sight before it would have gone behind the door. *During the door chase sequence, there are a couple frames where neither Mike and Sulley or Randall has Boo. Trailers One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. Trailers for this film include: *Sulley and Mike stumble into the wrong bedroom, after Mike misreads Mongolia as Magnolia. Sulley berates Mike for making the mistake, possibly due to his lack of knowledge in geography. Mike does not take this lightly and sees it as Sulley teasing him for having one eye, but Sulley makes amends with Mike and goes back to the canteen for some doughnuts. Mike briefly stays behind, but quickly changes his mind when a dog begins growling at him offscreen. Sulley promptly grabs Mike and they return to Monsters, Inc. The background music is taken from the 1988 comedy, Midnight Run, the theme of character Alonzo Moseley, who was played by actor Yaphet Kotto. *In a preview shown before the [http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher's_Stone_(film) first Harry Potter film], Sulley is shown playing charades with Mike, but Mike is unable to guess the phrase "Harry Potter". The clip never specifically mentions Harry Potter, but the end states that Monsters, Inc. is playing right next door. Afterwords, Mike attempts to charade but a bored Sulley quickly and correctly guesses Star Wars. A bewildered Mike asks how he does it. Video:Monsters Inc. - Trailer|Trailer File:Monsters_Inc._(2001)_-_Teaser_Trailer_1,_post|Blu-Ray Trailer Video:Monsters Inc. - Charades Trailer|Charades Trailer File:Monsters_Inc._(2001)_-_Home_Video_Trailer|Home Video Trailer File:Monsters_Inc._3D_Rerelease_(2001)_-_Theatrical_Trailer_for_Monsters_Inc.|3D Re-release Trailer Gallery Posters Monsters, Inc. Poster 3.jpg|Mike promotional poster monsters_inc_ver4.jpg|Japanese poster monsters_inc_ver1_xlg.jpg|Final poster #1 Movie_poster_monsters_inc_2.jpg|Final poster #2 Monsters,_Inc-Scream_poster.jpg|Final poster #3 Monsters-Inc-3D-Poster.jpg|Monsters, Inc. 3D poster Monsters inc.jpg Character Images Sulleymonsters,inc..png Mike1.png Boo.png Randall.png Fungus.png Henry J. Waternoose III.jpg Cda.png Celiamonsters,inc..png Roz.png Needleman&smitty.png 983036-george sanderson large.jpg Claws.png Yeti.png Ricky.png Harley.png Bile-white.jpg Screenshots Sulley.jpg|Sulley looking on Boo at the end of the film RexCameoPartcreditsMonster Inc..jpg|Rex's cameo in the outtakes Monsters Inc Screen 001.png Monsters Inc Screen 002.png Monsters Inc Screen 003.png Monsters Inc Screen 004.png Monsters Inc Screen 005.png Monsters Inc Screen 006.png Mi-mike-sulley-greet.jpg Monsters scare floor.jpg Monsters Inc Mike Sulley Boo shadow.jpg Mi-Image-Sulley-Boo.jpg Mi-Image-Mike-Sulley-Walk.jpg Mi-Image-Mike-Sulley-workplace.jpg Mi-Image-Sulley-Waternoose.jpg Monstersincholiday.jpg|Happy Holidays! Clips File:Monsters_Inc._(2001)_-_Clip_On_the_job,_post|On the Job File:Monsters_Inc._(2001)_-_Clip_Sully's_problem,_post|Sulley's Problem File:Monsters_Inc._(2001)_-_Clip_Finding_Boo's_door,_post|Finding Boo's Door Featurettes File:Monsters_Inc._(2001)_-_Featurette_Tokyo_Monstsropolis,_post|Tokyo Monstropolis File:Monsters Inc 3D - Going 3D Featurette|Going 3D File:Monsters_Inc._(2001)_-_Featurette_Roundtable_favorite_scene,_post|Roundtable favorite scene File:Monsters Inc 3D Featurette|3D Featurette Category:Films